


A Helping Hand

by Wolkemesser



Category: Magic: The Gathering (Card Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:47:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21666904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolkemesser/pseuds/Wolkemesser
Summary: Tiana goes to Jhoira for guidance on her grad thesis, but she just might have an ulterior motive to boot~From the Magic: the Gathering College Au.
Relationships: Jhoira/Tiana (Magic: The Gathering)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	A Helping Hand

A flash of auburn hair. Just a glimpse out of the corner of Jhoira’s eye, and she knew the productive portion of her afternoon was coming to an end.

A narrow window ran along the top of the fabrication lab walls, looking out into the adjacent hallway. It was high enough that most people couldn’t see in or out of it, but the head passing by just then was half-visible as it turned the corner, and Jhoira could think of only one student with the altitude and hair color to match.

She stood up from her laptop, pulling the flash drive out of the port, and carried it over to a row of 3-d printers. Might as well have a part in progress while she was diverted. As soon as the printer whirred to life, Jhoira strode back to the workbench and sat, facing the small window in the lab door. She flipped her ponytail forward over the shoulder for good measure, pointedly ignoring a bemused look from the fabrication lab tech, Mr. Brask.

Tiana’s face popped into the window and ducked back away in the same motion as soon as they she made eye contact. Jhoira restrained a smile. Even in that brief second, the sudden flush at Tiana’s cheeks had been apparent. Newbie grad students were always _easy_ to tease, but none of them were nearly as fun as Tiana.

“Hey!” Tiana shouldered through the door about half a minute later, grinning broadly, and pointing finger guns at Jhoira. Her recovery time had almost halved since Jhoira had first met her, though her cheeks were still lightly tinged pink. “Are you free? I had some questions.”

Jhoira raised an eyebrow. “Maybe. I assume you got permission to use the fab lab before just bursting in here?”

Tiana stopped short, the smile faltering, the finger guns lowering. “Uh…permission? I wasn’t going to…that is, I didn’t need to use any of the machines just now-”

“You need a professor’s approval.” Jhoira tabled her fingers on the desk between them. “Are you telling me you _didn’t_ get permission? You just…flew in here?”

She held a stern face for exactly five seconds before she cracked a smile. Tiana glared down at her, but the corners of her own mouth were twitching upward. “Boo. You’re teasing me.”

“Do you mind?”

Jhoira wasn’t sure if Tiana bit her lip out of reflex, or if she knew how cute it was, but it was wonderful to see every time.

“Not really.” She was looking down at her hands, now fidgeting around her waist. “Not if…you can give me a hand?”

“Hmmm…my office hours aren’t really until five.” Jhoira pinched her chin between her thumb and forefinger, giving the clock a dramatically anguished look. “But I suppose I can squeeze you in.”

“Whatever,” Tiana came around to Jhoira’s side of the bench and collapsed onto an empty stool. Even seated, she was a good head taller than Jhoira. At that height it was impossible for her to conceal the spreading grin on her face. “Seriously though, is now good for you? I can come back-”

“I can make time.” Jhoira extended her hand, palm-up. “Give me your hand”

Tiana froze, halfway through the act of swinging her backpack into her lap. “Um?”

Jhoira _tsk_ ed. “Your hand. Now.”

Tiana held her hand out automatically this time, palm-down. Jhoira turned it over and lay a white-and-blue plastic card into Tiana’s hand.

“Lab access card. If you ever need to use any of the machines while I’m not here.”

“Oh! Th-thanks!” Tiana tucked the card into the front of her overalls, deftly popping the button on the pocket with her thumb. She had a blue plaid shirt on underneath the overalls, with the sleeves rolled up, and Jhoira could see the bottom half of a winged tattoo peeking out under the sleeves, stretched out over Tiana’s thick upper arms.

“Saves you the trouble of chasing your advisor down.” Jhoira leaned back in her chair and put her boots up on the workbench. “Just make sure you treat the equipment with respect.”

“Oh, yeah, for sure.”

Jhoira took a moment to enjoy the face that Tiana wasn’t looking anywhere near her face, then clicked the toes of her boots together. Tiana looked up, a bit of the familiar fluster creeping back in. “So what can I help you with?”

“So, uh, my thesis.” Tiana swung her bag onto the table and pulled out her laptop and a notebook. “I want to do something with aeronautics, right? I was thinking something like…floating city technology?”

“What, like a paper on cloud cities?”

“Yeah, it’s-” Tiana jabbed at the power button until her screen came to life “-kind of out there, right? But my advisor eats that kind of stuff up and to be honest I thought it seemed pretty fun, but I’m having some trouble pinning down good sources for my paper, and as for the mechanical component-” The login screen gave way to a sketch app covered in layers of scribbles and crude diagrams. “-well, I’m kind of all over the place right now.”

“Damn, okay...” Jhoira scanned over the notes. The ideas Tiana had down were pretty disparate and tentative, but she could pick out some promising designs among the less advisable sketches.

“I thought, well...” Tiana bit her lip. “Your airship research project from last spring was the coolest presentation I’ve seen since I joined the department. _That_ ’ _s_ the kind of stuff I want to work on. Real stuff. Designing the world of the future.”

A smile curled at the corners of Jhoira’s mouth. “Flatterer.” 

“I mean it!” Tiana was sitting up now, moving her hands up and down animatedly. “Like, you actually had a vision for that. Emergency relief vehicles using magnetic powerstone propulsion? _That_ ’ _s_ the kind of stuff research funding should go towards!”

She was clenching her fist now.

_So earnest. So cute._

“Bring that energy to your thesis defense and you’ll be able to get a passing grade no matter what you work on.”

Tiana preened a bit at that, and her hand fell back in her lap. “Yeah, but I _want_ to do this.”

“Hmmmm, okay, you’ve convinced me.” Jhoira leaned forward toward the screen. “So what do you need?”

“Just...I guess any problems you ran into putting your drafts together? And like, which profs or shop techs I need to make friends with so I can get all the parts I need for a demo.”

“ _Now_ you’re thinking like a grad student. Okay, so these boosters here, have you considered...”

Tiana flipped open the notebook and jotted down notes as Jhoira commented on the proposals. Her handwriting was large and looping, but neat, though she had a tendency to get inky fingerprints on the pages. Over the course of a half hour she filled a dozen pages with notes, occasionally asking Jhoira to stop so she could scribble a new idea or half-sketch.

“...and I guess most of all, make it focused.” Jhoira scrolled past the last sketch, and leaned back on her stool. “You’ve got about a hundred ideas here, and half of them are pretty darn good.”

Tiana stared at the open notebook. “I should scale it back, huh?”

“You’re good. You need to get all your thoughts out if this head-” She poked Tiana in the forehead. “-before you know which ones will work best.”

“Ehhhhh.” Tiana put her forehead down onto the notes. “I don’t even know which one my advisor will like.”

“Well, I’d say pick out the ones you’re most excited about and take them to your advisor. Let them pick one out and they’ll be a lot more invested in helping you perfect it.”

“Oh, he’s totally invested.” Tiana sat back up and tapped her keyboard. “Loves the concept and everything. But every time I bring an actual focus topic in...” Tiana shrugged.

“No luck?”

Tiana shook her head. "Professor Gitaxias keeps telling me to take it back to the drawing board. Something about my vision not 'evolving' sufficiently."

Jhoira made a face. " _Gitaxias_ is your advisor? That's rotten luck."

Tiana shrugged. "I mean...he's alright. Kind of creepy, but in a 'too-intense about-my-job' kind of way, which means he’s pretty experienced with advising. And he's really passionate about me completing my thesis, so…" Tiana frowned, and stared down at her notes.

“But…?”

“Well...okay, this is totally silly but, my first draft was all about accessibility, right? Trying to make sure that any kind of aerial habitat is as accommodating to differently abled people as you would expect the ground to be.”

Jhoira smiled. “Kind of a low-hanging fruit.” She tapped Tiana’s screen. “But not silly at all. If you’re going to take people into the future you should take _all_ the people.”

“Right??” Tiana’s voice rose a bit. “And so, the big thing is oxygen levels, right? You’ve got to be aware of like, how thin the air gets, and the pressure difference, potentially. So almost all my designs have to start there, with covered walkways and mostly indoor facilities so you can regulate, _especially_ for people who are like, asthmatic or suffer from headaches or migraines or whatever. But Gitaxias keeps telling me to forget all that to focus on the power sources and aerodynamics and…and I _guess_ that stuff is important, and I guess I should be happy that _he_ seems so into it,, but I just really want to...I want to make something _good_ for people, you know? Not just another theoretical aircraft that isn’t actually fit for habitation.”

“And you…okay, this is going to sound silly, but you _did_ tell him all this, right?”

Tiana squirmed in her seat. “Um, eventually, yeah. He’s pretty dead-set at this point, I think.”

Jhoira pursed her lips. She’d personally lucked out with her own advisor last year, Mr. Baron, who’d given her more or less free reign over her project, once she’d settled on a topic and shown him her proposal. Gitaxias was an unknown quantity. She’d had him once for a lecture on biomechanical theory, and he’d seemed…

_…not exactly inflexible, but almost manic about the topic matter. Impossible to get him to listen half the time._

The soft flutter of a page turning in the corner of the lab, barely audible over the hum of the printer, broke Jhoira out of her contemplation.

_Ah. Of course._

Jhoira turned to the corner of the lab. “Yo, Uri!”

Tiana started as the lab tech peeled off the wall, leaving his book open on his seat. Uri was remarkably good at going unnoticed until someone asked for help, or was about to commit a safety violation.

“Yeah?”

“Don’t ‘Yeah’ me. Did you hear what we were talking about?”

Uri paused, pursing his lips. “Maybe. Not exactly a lot of people in the lab right now.”

“And…?”

Uri shrugged.

“Your brother, man. Any thoughts on getting him to take his head out of his ass and help a student do the thesis they want to do, and not just some weird pseudo-military project?”

“Fraternity brother,” Uri corrected. “And trust me, if I was any good at talking him into things, well...well I guess I’d be good at talking him into things. I’d probably have an easier time convincing the department heads to budget for repairs around here.”

“Fraternity?” Tiana was grinning goofily from ear to ear. “Professor Gitaxias was in a fraternity? For real?”

“Mmm, Alpha-Phi.” Uri smiled slightly to himself, like he was reminiscing about something, then shook his head. “Anyways, Jim’s an Ivory Tower bird these days. Not a lot of time for the opinions of a humble working man.” he tapped the leg of his work jeans.

“How’d you get him to support your request for the budget for free summer classes for high-schoolers last year then?”

Uri crossed his arms. “I have my methods.”

A silence passed between the three of them. Tiana looked from Uri to Jhoira, brow raised. Jhoira leaned forward, brow raised.

“And…?”

“My methods are hidden.”

“C’mon Uri.” Jhoira leaned back on the bench. “Tell you what. Help us out and I’ll get the dean to sign off on that new darksteel press you’ve been drooling over.”

Uri squinted down at her. “Now you’re trying to pull me into something unethical.”

“You’re tempted though.”

“Fair.” Uri pulled up a stool. “If you’ve got the dean so wrapped around your finger, why don’t you just have him tell Jim to play nice?”

“If Gitaxias thinks he’s being coerced, he’ll get cranky and take it out on the students.” Jhoira put a hand on Tiana’s shoulder. The bigger girl tensed, and Jhoira was about to take it back, but she put her hand over Jhoira’s. “Uh, anyway, if you have a way that makes him feel like the decision is his own, that’ll be better.”

Uri leaned backward, lips pursed. Jhoira watched the gears turn behind his eyes, but most of her thought process was currently stuck on the parts of Tiana on either side of her hand. Her fingers squeezed at that broad shoulder ever so slightly, and she felt Tiana’s hand curl overtop her own, matching the pressure.

“Okay...okay, deal.” Uri leaned forward. “How’s your relationship with Shea?”

Jhoira frowned “Professor O’Drehd? The law teacher? I’ve...talked to her before. I guess well enough, though we’re not really that well acquainted.”

“I...I know her pretty well,” Tiana offered. “I took one of her intro philosophy classes and I think she liked me? She always extended office hours for me, though...sometimes that was just to gossip.”

Uri nodded. “That’ll work. Explain what you want to work on, and it’ll make its way to Jim. He respects _her_ opinion, for whatever reason.”

“Hmmmm,” Jhoira tapped her chin with a single finger. “Jealousy doesn’t suit you, Uri.”

He grunted, and rolled his eyes. “Advice for you, and a good word with the dean for me, right?”

“Deal” Jhoira extended a hand and a smile. Uri returned the handshake, then wandered back to his corner with his book.

“Th-thank you!” Tiana took her hand off Jhoira’s. She was whispering now, and flicked her eyes once off into Uri’s corner. “Uh...how are you going to, you know...the dean?”

“Oh, that.” Jhoira suppressed a laugh. Old man Ith is crazy about Jodah these days, ever since the Watersilver Project that got all that attention for the University. I just slip ideas into Jodah’s head and Ith gobbles them up when they inevitably leak back out.”

“Ah, are you two, ummm…?” Tiana was squirming a bit in her chair. “That is, I heard from Venser that you two used to...”

“Hm? Oh!” Jhoira almost laughed again as she realized what Tiana was talking about. “Gaea no, don’t ever try dating the university’s golden boy. Men are aggravating enough as it is without the ego-tripping.”

“Oh. Okay!” Tiana brightened almost immediately. Jhoira wondered briefly if she’d been as obvious as this when she was a first-year grad student. Not that she minded. It was part of Tiana’s unique charm.

“Why do you ask?” Jhoira threw her boots up on the stool Uri had vacated, throwing as much of a “Casual-not-actually-casual” tone into her voice as possible.

“Well, uh...if you have time, then. That is, if you don’t have to spend time with your boyfriend. I mean, if you don’t have one, I was wondering...maybe once I’ve gotten some more of my project figured out...uh, maybe we could-”

“I’d love to help. We’ll do a session in a month, once you’ve started mocking up models.”

Tiana beamed.

“And,” Jhoira continued. We should do lunch sometime. Just, um...just for fun. I don’t think I ever properly welcomed you to the illustrious grad school life.”

Tiana Tucker her laptop and notebook away, and pulled a planner out of her bag. “Uh, next Wednesday? They opened a Pivlichino’s in town a few weeks ago. My cousin says the food’s pretty, uh…reasonably priced.”

“Let’s make it Thursday. Music to my ears otherwise.”

“T-totally! It’s a date!” Tiana grinned wrapped Jhoira in a hug. Then she swept out of the lab, all but skipping.

Seconds later she was back through the doorway, rushing over to the workbench, face apple-red.

“It, um…it _is_ a date, right? I mean – I guess I’m saying – I’d like to – ”

“You’ll pick me up at six,” Jhoira said through a smirk, resting her chin on her knuckles. “Lobby of the Halcyon dorm. I’ll be wearing blue.”

“Oh. Oh! Great, um…see you there.” Tiana leaned forward, and for a moment Jhoira was sure the other girl was going to kiss her. Instead, she slipped something under Jhoira’s elbow, and rushed back out of the lab.

It took Jhoira a few moments to collect herself to examine what Tiana had left. Her own face was red-hot, though she could have sword the heat wasn’t coming from her, but from those bare inches of space between their faces that Tiana hadn’t crossed.

It was an envelope. Small, square, and white, with a red winged heart sealing the flap closed. She held it tight in her hand as she wandered over to the printer to check on the progress of her airship model.

Outside, she caught a flash of auburn hair turning out of sight.

_For now._


End file.
